It sounded like a nice invitation: an alfresco meal in the Hamptons in August. But the event is not happening. At least not this weekend.
A week ago, news broke that an off-the-record conversation and dinner with OpenAI’s chairman and founder, Sam Altman, was going to take place on Saturday at the Amagansett, N.Y., home of Gwyneth Paltrow.
The outlet that alerted the public to this was Puck, via its Hollywood newsletter from Matthew Belloni. He made his disapproval clear, writing: “I guess summers in the Hamptons just aren’t complete these days without sucking up to our new A.I. overlords. Luckily, Gwyneth Paltrow has you covered.”
Belloni published a copy of the invitation, which three people working on the event subsequently confirmed was real.
The online response was swift, and largely negative. Kristen Van Nest, a Los Angeles-based writer of thrillers, accused Paltrow on X, formerly Twitter, of honoring a man who runs a company that is “actively replacing” writers and actors.
Paltrow seemed to take the ensuing controversy in stride. She used her Instagram account to post a series of parody invitations for dinners the same evening, held in honor of, variously, M3gan, Jessica Rabbit, Shrek, Samantha Jones and the viral character Chanty Beluga. “We’re serving swordfish burritos, Cheddar foam lattes on request,” Paltrow wrote, referring to a Beluga bit. The intention of the parody was unclear. But amid all the posts, she didn’t explicitly deny the Altman dinner was set to take place.
By Thursday afternoon, though, the event was off, according to three people who have been in touch with Paltrow and OpenAI but were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans. These people said that the dinner was being postponed and that no new date had been selected.
In certain ways, it made sense that Paltrow had chosen to host Altman.
Although she became known as an actress in movies like “Emma” and “Shakespeare in Love,” for which she won an Oscar, Paltrow is also the founder of the lifestyle brand Goop, as well as an investor in numerous tech start-ups, including OpenAI.
According to two people who work with Paltrow, she made the investment in Altman’s company in 2023 through Kinship Ventures, a fund that has stakes in companies focusing on everything from fintech to women’s health. She also has a long history of saying and doing things that other people in her position might not.
She was among the first group of women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment.
She has dissed the Met Gala, which she once called “so un-fun,” “boiling” and “too crowded.”
A recent video in which she promoted a luxury commercial real estate development north of Tel Aviv created an online backlash.
She has a vast array of friends on the East End of Long Island, among them Steven Spielberg, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, Jimmy Fallon, and Charles Porch.
That last name may not be familiar to the public at large, but he was hired earlier this year to be the vice president of global creative partnerships at OpenAI after working for Instagram in a similar capacity for more than a decade.
At Instagram, Porch helped coordinate the 2013 announcement of Beyoncé’s self-titled album, in a simple post. He also worked with Condé Nast to create portrait studios at the Met Gala and the Vanity Fair Oscar party.
He even went to Italy to help onboard the pope to Instagram.
Porch’s wedding last summer to Robert Denning, a trustee with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, took place in Paris and was featured in Vogue. Among those who attended were Harry Styles, Mariska Hargitay and the Seinfelds.
But his job at OpenAI is perhaps more difficult than the one he held at Instagram, where there was an obvious upside among celebrities and fashion designers for taking advantage of the platform.
Even as A.I. provides tools to help blocked writers outline their screenplays and inexperienced musicians compose songs, creative professionals continue to worry that it will mostly sideline artists and automate their work.
In July, Porch went to Cannes, where he filmed an interview about his work. He said he believes that A.I. will help creative people “run their businesses more efficiently than they ever have.” A.I. wasn’t the enemy, he was trying to convey. “I think human creativity is going to be even more valuable in an A.I. world,” he said. “I’m telling you, people, it’s going to be even more precious and valuable.”
Part of a charm offensive, perhaps, that might have continued at a dinner in Amagansett — a dinner, a person close to Porch confirmed, that he was instrumental in arranging.
Now, The New York Times has learned the dinner has been postponed. The person close to Porch said Thursday afternoon that the event was likely to take place sometime over the next several weeks but that no new date had been chosen.
